Morgan Lander says that it “may not be the right time” for KITTIE to return with new music.
After the London, Ontario, Canada-based metallers completed the touring cycle for 2011’s “I’ve Failed You” album, KITTIE entered a long period of inactivity during which the guitarist/vocalist focused on a marketing job for a chain of fitness clubs, while her sister, drummer Mercedes Lander, worked in real estate and more recently at a software company. The group also began work on a career-spanning documentary, “Origins/Evolutions”, which finally saw the light of day in 2018 via Lightyear Entertainment in North America.
Asked in a new interview with Consequence Of Sound if there are any plans for KITTIE to make new music, Morgan said: “Our bass player and great friend of ours, Trish Doan, passed away a couple of years ago, and so that’s made it really difficult to try to feel like it’s right to do more when she would have wanted to be the one to be there. So, that’s also a tough thing that we grapple with. But, individually, we’re all working on new music. Mercedes is in THE WHITE SWAN, which is a band that she actually fronts. She sings and plays guitar. Tara McLeod is playing full-time in an awesome country band. So, that’s really cool. I’m fronting a kind of melodic death metal band called KARKAOS. So, we’re still all very close as friends and musicians, but it may not be the right time. But we’ve always said, never say never.”
Regarding what kind of legacy she hopes KITTIE leaves behind, Morgan said: “To start off with, the word ‘KITTIE‘ and ‘legacy’ in the same sentence is mindblowing. It’s vindicating, in a way, because after all that people said back in the day, there are so many people that love the band and look back and say, ‘Wow. You might’ve paved the way,’ or, ‘You guys have a legacy,’ or, ‘You guys were a legendary band.’ These are all things that I’ve heard recently that I don’t think we would have ever equated to KITTIE 15 or 20 years ago. So, I think our legacy is that we were the underdogs, and as a band, we didn’t think that there were any rules that were made that weren’t meant to be broken. There were things that we decided we wanted to accomplish, and just because we were young and women didn’t mean that we weren’t allowed to do things that people didn’t think that young women should do. And, the music still resonates with people today, 21 years later. I think it’s a testament to the true heart and soul behind the band.”
Last October, Mercedes told the “Thunder Underground” podcast that there were no plans for KITTIE to reunite anytime soon. “I know that we’re lucky to have the experiences that we have had,” she said. And we had a really amazing time when we did that ‘Live In London’ show a couple of years, where we brought everybody back that wanted to come back. And we did like a ‘travel through time’ with all the different members and stuff like that. So that was really cool. We had a lot of fun doing that. But at this point, unless we got a really good offer… I don’t think we would do anything unless it was a really great offer and we could include everyone, in one fashion or another. And I think because at this point, we’re kind of one of those legacy bands, I feel like it would probably really help, or it would be really cool, if we could something with some of the past members as well. ‘Cause right now, we don’t necessarily have… I mean, besides my sister, myself and Tara, it’s just the three of us, technically, in the band.
“It’s kind of hard for us to continue on without Trish, because it would feel kind of weird not to have her there,” she continued. “So there’s a lot of stuff going on with that. But you never know what might happen. If somebody decides that they wanna give us a good offer, and it works out for us, and it’s feasible for us and we’re able to do it, I don’t see why not. But at the same time, we wanna make sure that things are good for the fans as well. We wanna make sure that the people that are coming to the show are getting a good experience, ’cause it might be the last time. [Laughs] We don’t wanna shortchange anybody and have a ‘lesser than’ experience, if that makes sense — we wanna make sure that everybody that comes to a show gets blown away. So we kind of have to outdo ourselves. But we’ll see what happens. You never know.”
Doan passed away in February 2017. The KITTIE bassist was only 31 years old at the time of her death.
Born in Gwangju, South Korea (about 270 kilometers from the capital Seoul), Doan joined KITTIE in 2005 and was in the band for two years before leaving in 2007 and then rejoining in 2012. She can be heard on KITTIE‘s 2006 EP “Never Again” and the 2007 full-length album “Funeral For Yesterday”.
In early 2008, it was reported that Doan originally left KITTIE due to the eating disorder anorexia-athletica-nervosa, which she had been struggling with for almost two years.
Doan relocated to Australia in 2009 to get a degree and try to surf before returning to Canada in 2011. She apparently moved back to Australia in 2013 and kept an active Twitter account and Facebook page where she frequently posted about her life struggles and battles with depression.
“I’ve Failed You” sold 3,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 178 on The Billboard 200 chart.
